I created this blog to share positive, upbeat information. I only write reviews for books I love and feel good about recommending. I also enjoy sharing my writing/publishing learning experiences with other writers. I'd love to hear from you. Please use the comments link on each blog post to share your own views and experiences.
The general schedule is reviews on Monday, writing tips on Wednesday, pot luck on Friday.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Questions for Writers

Reminder: Jean Henry Mead's book tour for A Village Shattered began on Monday. You can join the tour today and read about Ms. Mead's reporting background. Be sure to enter the freee book contest by leaving a comment. At the end of the tour, Ms. Mead will draw a winner from all the people who left comments during the tour.

Congratulations! All NaNo participants who reached your goals during November, take a moment to give yourselves a great big pat on the back before you begin the editing process. For those of you, like me, who have more writing to do - keep writing until your work is complete.

On Wednesdays, I usually provide information for writers - a link to a useful website, a great writing quote, personal learning experience, etc. Today, I'm asking writers to help me. I've been asked to write two blog posts about self-help books for a group blog - one on writing books and one on editing books. I started the article on writing books and started wondering - how do other authors evaluate the value of theses books. There are hundreds of them out there. Surely everyone doesn't use the same evaluation system I use. So, here are my questions for you:

Writing Books

What makes a good writing instruction book?

Do you have a favorite - one you return to over and over? What is the title and why is it your favorite?

How many writing books (rough estimate) to you currently have in your possession?

Editing Books

Do you find self-editing guides useful?

Do you have a favorite editing book? What is the title?

How many reference books do you typically use during the editing process? What are they?

Please use the comments link to share your thoughts - even if you only answer one of the questions. If it is okay for me to quote you in my articles, please leave a link to your blog or website.

29 comments:

One of the absolute best How-to's for writers of mysteries is "Don't Sabotage Your Submission" and "Don't Murder Your Mystery" by Chris Roerden. She gives a virtual checklist of mistakes that can kill your writing, if not caught. Published and unpublished authors writers are great fans of Chris's books.Regards, Kathryn Lilley, The Fat City Mysteries (A Killer Workout, Dying to be Thin)

Hi Charlotte! I'm unpublished (at the moment). I just started this journey into the world of writing in June by starting to read books on writing, and was just declared a winner at NaNo. (My lousy first draft is complete!) My favorite writing book is the one I'm reading now. The name of it is Getting Into Character by Brandilyn Collins. It approaches characterization using the acting methods of Stanislavsky. Very insightful.Cathy Bryanthttp://wordvessel.blogspot.com

I have over thirty writing instruction books on my bookshelf and my favorite is "On Writing" by Stephen King.

Obviously, there are books I use all the time and some that turned out to be a waste of money. I judge a good instruction book on clarity, specifics, and inspiration. It doesn't do the reader much good if the only information given is a generalized "Write the best you can." or "Make sure your story works on the Macro level."

I add my timelines, and historical events to excel and then I start free writing. Once I complete my chapters, I place them in the spreadsheet and tweak the details so that they can flow together. It is an awesome way for organizing and structuring a story/novel.

* What makes a good writing instruction book?It needs to spark a "aha" moment for whatever problem I'm having at the moment. Hopefully it will spark more than one aha, though. * Do you have a favorite - one you return to over and over? What is the title and why is it your favorite?Playwriting: The Structure of ActionIt does so much for me, I hardly know where to start. Even though this is a playwriting book, it helps me with character and action and also with how I "hear" my words when I write. It's a great book. * How many writing books (rough estimate) to you currently have in your possession?probably about 20. used to be more, but I weeded out the ones I don't go back to when we moved to Houston.

Editing Books

* Do you find self-editing guides useful?I love Self Editing for Fiction Writers and use it after finishing a rough draft of each book.

* How many reference books do you typically use during the editing process? What are they?I use reference books during the writing, to verify facts. What they are depends on what I'm writing.

Thanks for the reminder of my blog book tour, Charlotte. I'm looking forward to my visit here with you on December 12. BTW, I'm giving away three copies of my senior sleuth mystery/suspense novel, A Village Shattered.

actionable information. I liked the "On Writing" (Stephen King) and "Writing Down the Bones" (author slips my mind) but the best ever is 20 Master Plots. It's a silly title because it sounds like its going to help you do canned plots, but it's an excellent plotting tutorial.

* How many writing books (rough estimate) to you currently have in your possession?

literally dozens.

I don't find editing guides useful other than books like Chicago Manual.

I'm new at this. I really only have the ideas in my head and in notebooks. So right now the only book I've read on this is Will Work For Shoes: How To Write A Chick Lit Novel by Cathy Yardley. So far I find it to be rather informative and helpful. I do plan on getting more.

Congratulations on reaching your NaNo goal and completing that all important first draft. You have to admit - it is a great feeling to know you can do it, even if the first result proves to be a learning experience. I'm doing the happy dance for you.

Diana,Thanks for responding! You are about the 500th person to recommend Struck and White's to me. I also have over 30 of those dern books on the shelf and have been hesitant to add another, but I think you have finally convinced me.

Mark and are currently trying this method with the second Eva Baum novel - The Golden Key. My row headings include1) the time line/weather references/elasped time2) red herrings (its a mystery)3) valid clues4) characters in order of appearance

the columns are the chapters

I'm finding this to be a very useful tool for finding logic and story flow issues.

Do you have any other suggestions for rows or columns? Anything that has worked particularly well?

Thanks Pauline. You've told me before to check out playwriting and screenwriting books to help tighten up the writing. I seem to remember you've written a few self-help books - Adapting Your Novel for Film, I believe. It's in be stack of 'to be read.' Now I'm embarassed and feel a need to move it to the top!

I hit that send button too soon. You'll find much great info online as well. Writing groups like The Final Twist (thefinaltwist.com), marketing groups like the Yahoo group MurderMustAdvertise, and the editing blog The Blood Red Pencil where profesional editors share tips, advice, and how to information (http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/)

The book I always recommend to my students is TELLING LIES FOR FUN AND PROFIT by Lawrence Block. It's funny, eminently useful, and covers topics such as "the writing life" as well as the nuts and bolts of fiction.